Category: Happy life!

Stand Up Paddle Boarding is a growing hobby all around the world! If you are around a body of water (especially during the warmer months) you are highly likely to see at least one person paddle boarding! Living in Michigan during the winter months brings about some pretty harsh winter conditions, like frozen over lakes, [...]

Michigan...what is up with these curveball winters lately! Winter really started off hard; being dumped on by snow in December. Then the new year rolled around and we haven't gotten much of anything....UGH. As you all know, I use to dread winter when I was younger. But as I've gotten older (Lets be honest..since I [...]

Well, January in Michigan was NOTHING like a Michigan January should be. I think at least half of the month was 30+ degrees! SO NOT NORMAL. A little thaw was nice, but bring on the snowstorms! While in New Zealand Kwin and I were so excited to getting home (to the 2 1/2 feet of [...]

2017 was one of the best years of my life! It was a year of continued growth, and full of traveling and many adventures. It was a year of developing new friendships and pushing myself past my comfort zone. And the best yet, 2017 was the year I married my best friend and our life [...]

Is anyone else as excited as I am for snow finally? As a child, I really did not like the winter months. I lived in the city, and there are only so many times you can go sledding down the same hill, build a snowman and have a snowball fight with your neighbors before it [...]

Ahh, it's that time of year again...SUNFLOWERS! Only one of the many beautiful things that Northern Michigan is known for in the summer. The vast fields of bright yellow sunflowers cover the country roadside. Cars parked along the road shoulder to snap a picture with not just one, but millions of them! Where Kwin and [...]

As many of you know, Kwin and the rest of the Stand Up For Great Lakes crew successful crossed Lake Huron last month. Paddling a grueling 28hours straight in choppy and un-predictable Great Lake water; and overcoming physical, mental and emotional fatigue are only some of the barriers that the paddlers faced. I cannot even [...]

In middle school you would have never caught me dead getting up and working out before school started at 6 AM. But for these seventh and eighth grade Cherryland Middle Schoolers the gym, at such early hours, is the place to be! Starting back in October 2016 Kwin, my fiancé, began meeting with a few [...]

Dear Mom, Where do I even begin...from the beginning you have always been there for me. You went through hours of painful labor, had countless sleepless nights, and endured my famous childhood temper tantrums. We bickered a lot in the teenage years, and did not always see eye to eye. Yet, you still seemed to [...]

April 22, 2017. A sunny, 40 degree day in Northern Michigan. The water of the Mackinaw Straights extremely calm, which as many of you may not know is VERY rare. Absolutely perfect conditions for a paddle board adventure. Gordie Lafontaine and Kadin Patterson, two 8th graders at Cherry Land Middle School, have both grown up [...]